The Sort-Of Date
by TransientFireworks
Summary: As the prospect of the Snow Queen's attack looms over Rory's head, can Chase help ease the stress a bit? Hmm...probably not.


**Why isn't there any fanfics of Chase and Rory! **

**If you guys need a new series to begin, I highly recommend the Ever After Series by Shelby Bach. It's only three books in and it's absolutely amazing. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ever After Series. **

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They say you never forget your first date.

Boy I hoped that wasn't true. I'd love nothing better than for Lena to whip up a nice memory potion for erase the past few hours. Chase didn't seem to think so.

"Come on, I don't think it went that bad," he said for the umpteenth time. My temper flared and I, once again, pointed to my torn pants. He cringed. "Oookaaayy...so not everything went according to plan...but I still say it went pretty well!"

"You and I clearly have different definitions of the word 'well'," I told him. He rolled his eyes and I grew defensive. "Chase, you know my birthday is only a month away!"

He got that look on his face again; whenever I mention something too emotional or deep and he was calculating on how to change the subject. Surprisingly, he did the opposite. "That's exactly why we had to do this now."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Chase bent down and began to skip stones across the pond beside us. The once still water now rippled with each stone, reflecting the dark colors of the setting sun. I shivered a bit and tried to adjust my cardigan before remembering that it was torn to shreds.

We were both quiet for a while. I decided to speak first. "The Snow Queen isn't going to stop," I reminded him. He didn't reply. "She's getting stronger and so are her allies. We barely survived back there."

Chase paused before throwing another stone, but this time angrily onto the ground by our feet. "I protected you just fine back there!" he snapped.

Well that came out of no where. "I didn't say you fought bad," I retorted with a glare. I grabbed a stone of my own. "And who said I needed you to protect me?!" I angrily threw the stone, not even caring that it didn't skip once, only sinking down to the murky bottom.

"Oh _please _Rory," he threw his arms up. "You don't think I haven't noticed the way you look over your shoulder every minute? Like someone is going to get you at any second?"

I didn't reply, mostly because I knew he was right. Every day since we finished Miriam's Tale all my mind kept circling back to was my own Tale and the words _winter, death and despair_. It really made it hard to focus on anything else to be honest. What surprised me was that someone like Chase noticed. "Is that why you invited me to hang out?" I asked. "Because you felt sorry for me?"

His face softened and, in a very un-Chase-like way, he smiled sheepishly with a shrug, cheeks blushing. "Well, I thought I'd get your mind off everything. And, you know, I heard this park was very roman-I mean relaxing."

Despite the prospect of my own death looming over my head, I blushed. "Thank you." I laughed, reaching for a stone. "You know it started out fun before the trolls attacked."

"What're you talking about?" Chase said, watching me skip stones with a grin. "I honestly think that the trolls were an added bonus to the fun."

I stared at him as though he just suggested to invite the Snow Queen to our next hangout. "Are you kidding me?"

He shrugged again. "I mean, think about Rory, have you ever noticed that we don't really argue much when we're training?"

"No," I answered truthfully. "I'm too preoccupied kicking your butt during training to notice."

"Rory, I'm trying to be nice here, please work with me."

"Tell that to my outfit," I grinned. I took a stone out of his hand and managed to skip it five times; I personal best for me. Well, a personal best without the power of the ring on my hand. Chase shoved me, but lightly to know he was joking. "Alright, alright, you win. I had fun fighting those trolls. But it definitely wasn't exactly how I wanted my first date to go."

Chase paused and stared blank at me. I froze, panicked. Oh...maybe this wasn't a date.

Surprising me yet again, he didn't burst out laughing at my suggestion. He simply went back to skipping stones with a thoughtful expression on his face.

I coughed awkwardly. "Sorry," I said, not knowing what else to say.

"It's okay," he replied.

What? What was okay? Me thinking this was a date? SPEAK!

Luckily, he did.

"I mean...I didn't know you'd consider this a date." Chase crossed his arms, apparently thinking deeply about it. I blinked at him. "Let's see. I picked you up your house; check. We ate food; check. I paid for most of it; check. We had a fun time taking down those trolls so, yeah, I guess you can count this as a date."

"_What_?" I gaped at him. "This is totally not a date! I mean, you didn't get me any flowers, we haven't held hands, and I'm not even dressed the part-"

"Rory!" he laughed.

"What?" I freaked out.

Chase picked a small dandelion from the ground and handed it to me. "Flower; check." I almost had a heart attack when he interlocked his hand through mine. For a crazy moment, I believed he was Arica in disguise. But she was stuck back in her little home so this had to be the real Chase.

Real Chase. Holding my sweaty hand.

_Oh my gumdrops_, as Lena puts it.

"As for how you're dressed," he continued. "I happen to find torn and dirt-stained clothes very attractive."

"You have strange taste," I said dumbly.

"I've been thinking that since day one," he replied, leading me down the path. Night had fallen around us and streetlights illuminated ahead in a line, as though leading us somewhere magical. Which, maybe they were.

My head felt fuzzy, like it couldn't process too many things at once. I decided to focus on Chase's hand and squeezed lightly.

He returned to pressure and, in a very Chase-like way, continued to talk, "Anyway, when we get back to EAS you need some serious training. I mean, I really hope that you weren't taking that fight seriously because if you were, yikes."

I bumped my shoulder against his. "Like you did any better! As I recall, that troll knocked you down at least three times."


End file.
